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Waylaid while traveling

My month of research and travel has come to an end. My intention had been to write a few blogs along the way and then continue sharing highlights of Russia and South Africa throughout the summer. However, I only managed to write an initial blog about Moscow before I was waylaid by what appeared to be a simple cold a few days after arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Mandela Statue in Pretoria, South Africa

After a week of running around to meetings and trying to pack in as much sightseeing as possible, I felt exhausted but it was time to hop a plane to Cape Town. We settled in to a lovely B&B called Acorn House where my situation progressively got worse. The staff at Acorn was so gracious and took wonderful care of me from the moment I arrived until they dropped me off at the airport. They even brought me a hot water bottle — it was winter in South Africa…Without their kindness and care it really would have been a miserable situation. My roommate, Juhi, was also fabulous, she never complained about my hacking up a lung and germiness.

V&A Warf, Cape TownSouth Africa

I stayed at the B&B one day while my colleagues attended meetings hoping a day of rest would do the trick because the next day was a visit to a township that I was determined to go to. The next day I made the visit but knew I was not recovering. Around my fourth day in Cape Town I woke up and realized that my voice had completely disappeared and I was not going to be able to attend the scheduled meetings for my research. The owner of Acorn called her doctor and was able to make an appointment for me that day. My cold had gone into my lungs and I had laryngitis.

Back at the B&B, hopped up on steroids and not allowed to talk, I climbed back into bed to sleep. I spent the remainder of the visit on meds attending meetings but skipping out on some of the planned tourist bits in order to try and recover.

Ah, the journey home…Let’s just say the eighteen-hour, two planes and two-three hour ride in rush hour traffic from Newark into Manhattan did not help my cause. However, while sitting in the shuttle in traffic, I made an appointment with my doctor for the next day. I now have antibiotics that will hopefully wipe out the virus that has taken up residency in my body…

Researchers in Moscow

My longwinded point – I am now behind on finishing and submitting my research, which needs to happen over the next week. Afterwards, blogs about my research and the fabulous places I visited will resume.